Uranium-bearing coal and carbonaceous rocks in the Fall Creek area, Bonneville County, Idaho

Abstract

Uraniferous coal, carbonaceous shale, and carbonaceous limestone occur in the Bear River formation of Early Cretaceous age at the Fall Creek prospect, in the Fall Creek area, Bonneville County, Idaho. The uranium compounds are believed to have been derived from mildly radioactive silicic volcanic rocks of Tertiary age that rest unconformably on all older rocks and once overlay the Bear River formation and its coal. Meteoric water, percolating downward through the silicic volcanic rocks and into the older rocks along joints and faults, is believed to have brought the uranium compounds into contact with the coal and carbonaceous rocks in which the uranium was absorbed.